Putin won't rule out use of force in Crimea

Updated
March 05, 2014 09:06:00

The tense standoff in Ukraine continues as the war of words rolls on. Russia is in effective control of Crimea and there are reports Russian troops guarding its Belbek airbase fired shots into the air as unarmed Ukrainian soldiers marched on it in protest. In Washington, president Barak Obama said Russia's assertion that no troops had been mobilised was 'not fooling anyone', but president Vladimir Putin is unbowed, saying Russia will only use force to protect ethnic Russians there as a last resort.

CHRIS UHLMANN: Russia now exercises effective control of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and as the standoff continues the war of words rolls on.

The US secretary of state John Kerry has flown into Kiev, praising the restraint of the new government, while in Washington president Barak Obama said Russia had no right to enter Crimea.

BARACK OBAMA: There is a strong belief that Russia's action is violating international law. And President Putin seems to have a different set of lawyers, making a different set of interpretations. But I don't think that's fooling anybody.

The fact that we are still seeing soldiers out of their barracks in Crimea is an indication to which, what's happening there is not based on actual concern for Russian nationals or Russian speakers inside of Ukraine but is based on Russia seeking through force to exert influence on a neighbouring country.

That is not how international law is supposed to operate.

CHRIS UHLMANN: But Russian President Vladimir Putin is unbowed. In an hour long press conference in Moscow, he moved to cool the talk of war. Mr Putin now says he will only use force to protect ethnic Russians in Crimea as a last resort, but the president refused to rule it out.

Norman Hermant reports from Moscow.

(Sound from Russian newscast)

NORMAN HERMANT: On Russian state television it was once again nearly all Ukraine all the time, starting with extensive coverage of President Vladimir Putin's latest news conference on Moscow's role in the Crimean crisis.

With Russian forces tightening their grip on Crimea by the hour, the Russian president said the last thing he wants to see is the use of force, but he wouldn't rule it out.

(Sound of Vladimir Putin speaking)

"What can be a reason to use the armed forces?" he asked. "This is of course the last resort, simply the last resort."

Then, ominously, this from the Russian leader about the possibility Crimea may not be the last part of Ukraine to witness raw Russian power.

(Sound of Vladimir Putin speaking)

"If we see that lawlessness starting in eastern regions too, if people ask us for help," said Mr Putin, "we reserve the right to use all options at our disposal to protect those citizens."

It also doesn't sound as if the Russian president is convinced new elections in Ukraine, planned for May, are the way out of this deadlock.

"If they are held in the same terror that we see now in Kiev," said Mr Putin, "then we won't recognise them."

The Russian leader also said he'd met with ousted Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych two days ago in Russia and that Moscow still regards him as Ukraine's legitimate president.

All of this on the day US Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Kiev for talks aimed at shoring up support for Ukraine's fragile new government.

JOHN KERRY: The United States reaffirms our commitment to Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity according to international law. We condemn the Russian Federation's act of aggression.

NORMAN HERMANT: Aside from the rhetoric, there were signs Russia and Ukraine are stepping back from the brink, with word the two governments have been talking at the ministerial level.

Victor Kremenyuk of the USA and Canada Institute says it would be a mistake to underestimate just how seriously the Kremlin fears the economic fallout from this confrontation.

VICTOR KREMENYUK: Economically Russia depends on the market in Europe and if something happens to the Russian access to that market, that may be, you know, an end to the Russian nation today.

NORMAN HERMANT: There's no doubt Vladimir Putin knows the stakes. He may be willing to gamble anyway.